On The Hard-rock Trail With Chicago`s O`dette

February 16, 1990|By Tom Popson.

Last September, the members of a Chicago-area hard-rock band called O`Dette traveled to Los Angeles to attend the Foundations Forum, a three-day convention offering seminars and showcases devoted to hard rock and heavy metal. While they were there, they checked out some L.A. bands and clubs.

``Before I left Chicago, I thought, `I can`t wait to go to California and see these great clubs like the Whisky,` `` recalls O`Dette guitarist John Craig. ``And I was just shocked. Now I know how good we have it at the Thirsty Whale and Chances R, and I`d much rather play here. The bands are on their own out there. We have a lot of things given to us that they don`t, simple things like p.a.`s and decent stages.``

``Bands pay to play in clubs out there so they can be seen,`` says lead vocalist Mark O`Dette, picking up the theme. ``It`s absurd. You go down Sunset Boulevard on Friday night and there are 2,000 people on the street with Xerox flyers about their shows, saying `You`ve gotta come see this band!` And I`m thinking to myself, `These guys are struggling, really trying to make something happen, and they`re getting lost in the shuffle among the thousands of bands out there.` I`m impressed by the bands that do make it in that scene. It`s horrible.

``You don`t see too many bands come out of Chicago, but I think we`re going to be the next big monster to smash through,`` says O`Dette, adding a modest tangential note. ``We`ve struggled. I`ve given this everything I`ve got. It doesn`t matter. I`m gonna get there.

``But I like Chicago. It`s my hometown.``

On the other hand, as you can gather, the band also likes the idea of success on a large scale. Still a relatively new outfit without a recording deal, the band would have no qualms, says O`Dette, about hitting the road if a label offered them a contract and the chance to tour.

``I`m ready to go,`` says O`Dette. ``Anywhere, anytime, any way. I`d leave right now to get into a `78 Nova with rust on it and drive to the airport so they could fly me to Tuscaloosa.``

Started some seven months ago, the band O`Dette plays a riff-filled brand of hard rock sporting Mark O`Dette`s high-tenor lead vocals, some tight vocal harmonies and guitar solos packed with shoot-for-the-stratosphe re high notes. The band, which also includes drummer Kevin Latimer and bassist Terry Chandler, was started by O`Dette after his former outfit, Vengeance, dissolved-in part because a European band with the same name signed a deal in America with Columbia Records. While some might label O`Dette`s sound heavy metal, the band doesn`t see it that way.

``We`re closer to hard rock,`` says Craig. ``I hate to be categorized. Everybody hates it. But when somebody does categorize us for a contest or something, it`s hard rock.``

``But I don`t want to be categorized as heavy metal. One of the reasons I dropped the name Vengeance is because it connoted a tense atmosphere. We couldn`t get booked for a lot of shows because of the name. It connoted a heavy-metal feel, and that`s not what we are. When we`re playing pop material, ballads, things we`re trying to make the girls scream over, that`s not heavy metal to me.``

Whatever the category, the band`s music has a distinctly commercial feel, displayed on a four-song tape that`s available, barring stock depletion, at Rolling Stones Records and Flip Side outlets.

``We don`t write to try and be commercial,`` says O`Dette. ``Some of our songs are a little heavier, some come out sounding naturally commercial. Myself, I can`t stand death metal. I can`t stand thrash. I think it`s ridiculous. I don`t understand what somebody can get from going to a show and slamming their face against a stage for three continuous hours and then coming home and saying, `Hey, I had a great time.` Where you at, buddy?

``If you`re playing and people are coming to see it, obviously you`ve got something that`s good. But I think there`s a lot more money in something that can be put on FM radio.``

While the band might be relatively new, O`Dette exhibits more than one of the characteristics that have become time-honored parts of the hard-rock/

heavy-metal arena. They have that ready-for-MTV rock `n` roll look, both tonsorially and sartorially (a recent day saw them decked out in flash-trash gear that tended toward black leather and boots accented with silver chains). Forthcoming and friendly in conversation, they-or at least Mark O`Dette-can pepper a talk with mildly outrageous statements and the occasional potshot at big, established acts. They can also display that hard-rock brand of positive mental attitude that makes it obvious there`s no need here for a course in confidence-building: ``This band has every salable aspect you can look at,`` exclaims O`Dette. ``Good-looking guys, good appearance, good attitude, good stage show.``